


Staggered Start, Solid Landing

by Yoonki_397



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, hosh and wooz are gymnasts, kibum is also in this if just as soonyoung's gymnast ult, olympic athletes in training, wonu runs track, wonwoo has Loving Kwon Soonyoung Disease despite his best efforts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:07:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28165245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoonki_397/pseuds/Yoonki_397
Summary: Wonwoo has spent his whole life with his feet firmly planted to the ground.Soonyoung has spent his whole life dreaming of flight.On their journey to Olympic Qualifiers, they somehow meet in the middle.
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi
Comments: 11
Kudos: 19
Collections: Match Point: The SEVENTEEN Sports Fic Fest





	Staggered Start, Solid Landing

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [SVTSportsFest](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/SVTSportsFest) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Soonwoo learning about themselves and the love of their sport/of competing while falling in love and training for olympic qualifiers (This is a self-prompt!)
> 
> This is very different from what my original self-prompt was going to be, right down to the pairing and sport, but I'm so glad I was able to settle into this!
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Wonwoo has spent most of his life running. 

  


As a child, he ran everywhere. Home from school, thin legs carrying him home as fast as they could, the excitement of playing with his little brother driving him forward. In the halls, so fast that his teachers scolded him for disrupting the calm of their lessons with the sound of his rapid footfalls on the linoleum tiled floors. On the playground, often at the expense of his own safety. Wonwoo can’t remember a time as a child that his knees and elbows weren’t covered in scrapes and bruises and bandages. 

  


Once, he couldn’t have been older than 10, while his mom was cleaning up the latest gash on his shin, she had asked him why he was always in such a hurry. Before then, he hadn’t ever seen himself as having a destination, a place his feet were speeding towards. Instead, Wonwoo had always been drawn to the feeling of it. When he ran there was a weightlessness to him, the wind whipping through his hair seemingly strong enough that he almost thought it could lift the rest of his body off the ground. 

  


Wonwoo ran because it felt good, because it felt right.

  


It was hard to explain to his mom then, his struggle to find the right words to say going that far back, so he’d settled on just saying that running was fun and that he liked it. His mother had laughed and ruffled his hair before sending him off again.

  


In middle school, he had joined the track and field team. It wasn’t something he took seriously, it just felt like the obvious choice when club sign ups had been announced. Regardless of the reasoning, he had enjoyed it. The weightless, freeing feeling of being on the track persisted from his elementary days, now with the added joy of competing. The rush of beating the other boys and of hearing how proud his parents were when he showed them the medals he’d won. It had unknowingly started a hunger in the pit of his stomach, one that grew and rose without Wonwoo noticing. 

  


Not until it boiled over. 

  


By the time he entered high school, running had become more, growing and evolving in the same way his limbs and hair had. Scholarships and acceptance letters weighed down on him, like anchors around his ankles. It filled the races and meets with a heavy sense of dread, the once almost pleasant, rolling feeling in the pit of his stomach when he stood at the starting block had become something less like excitement and more like anxiety. 

  


Suddenly, his feet were carrying him towards something, towards a future that at age 18 was completely unclear to him. 

  


It was terrifying to realise that the thing he loved, the thing that made him feel the most like himself, could become so warped without him realising. 

  


Wonwoo tried to power through the feeling, accepting a scholarship to a private university with a good athletics reputation in Seoul at the end of his last year of high school with as much grace and gratitude as he could muster, and for a while it worked. For the most part.

_____

  
  


Wonwoo settles into university in Seoul fairly well. 

  


The dorms for scholarship students are set for single occupancy, and about the same size as his room back home. The familiarity of it helps to stave off the loneliness being so far from home brings. He doesn’t move back home to Changwon after he loses his first race in his first year, despite the week-long breakdown that follows, and he uses that momentum to push him forward his second and third years. 

  


Looking back it seems a little over dramatic. It wasn’t even one of his main events, he was just subbing in for the 110m hurdles last minute. He was still adjusting to college life and there was no way he would have been able to say no to his coach, three time olympic gold medalist Choi Minho, when he was asking for a favour. That was probably why the loss had stung as much as it had, the fear of disappointing someone he’s looked up to and respects, but Wonwoo guessed that maybe that was just part of the new weight that came with being on the track at this level.

  


He made himself a schedule within the first semester of freshman year, that he’s followed ever since. He attends class, and then practice. During breaks, he studies alone in the library on campus or he eats alone in the cafeteria. When he has to, he’ll join his teammates for dinner but for the most part he keeps to himself. Whenever his mom calls, he lies and tells her that he’s made a lot of friends on the team and that they hang out often because it’s easier than explaining how out of place he feels and how he keeps debating if he should withdraw from the team before the end of the semester and just focus on his degree instead. 

  


By his second year, in an attempt to make the lie easier to keep up, Wonwoo attempts to join a club. It lasts one week, the Film Club disbanding after the second meeting Wonwoo attends. The members couldn’t decide on whether or not the next movie they watch would be another foreign film or a domestic release, a debate heated enough that it was grounds for disbandment apparently. Despite his short stint in the club, Wonwoo somehow is able to find a friend in one of the members. 

  


Lee Jihoon is the only other member of the Film Club that didn’t participate in the conflict that ended it and was the only other student athlete. Jihoon tells him he’s a gymnast, that his main event is the Still Rings but he participates in Floor because their coach wants them to be well rounded, and when Wonwoo tells him that he has no idea what any of that is, the gymnast scoffs and says he’s not going to explain it. They’re the same age but Wonwoo doesn’t learn that until a month into their friendship, when he hears Jihoon address Hoseok from the weightlifting team as “hyung” in passing. Up until that point he’d been referring to the gymnast the same way, which Jihoon had never corrected him on because he thought it was funny.

  


Jihoon is quiet and prickly in a way that Wonwoo would compare to a stray cat, aloof and sort of distant despite the way they follow you home and meow for attention. Wonwoo had always liked cats, so maybe that’s the reason he finds his friendship with Jihoon so easy.

  
  


They fit well together despite, or maybe because of, their shared penchant for being loners. They supported each other as best they could, and cheered for each other without even fully understanding the other’s sport. Wonwoo didn’t remember the relief that came with having someone in the stands to support until he had Jihoon at nearly every meet, and he’s beyond grateful for his friend for helping him regain some of that calm he always used to feel.

  


His times improve almost overnight, the gap between him at first and the rest of the runners widening to almost a full second. He’s improved enough that Coach Choi had pulled him aside earlier in the season to set up a new training schedule, one “good enough to get him to Taereung” as Minho had put it. Good enough to get Wonwoo to the Olympics if he just focused himself. 

  


The new regiment is harder, going from five days of practice between classes to six, a whole extra day added just to cardio and conditioning. The intensity of it made competing feel different, almost like the weighted fear he was familiar with but somehow more manageable. Every race, every event, even a simple exhibition race like the one he’d just finished - another win and another 100th of a second improvement on his last time - felt that much more important to him. Like they were only things standing between him and Taereung. 

  


“Good race, Wonwoo-yah.”

  


Wonwoo looks up from where he’s sat slumped, lost in thought post-race as usual, on the bench and spots Jihoon, the gymnast dressed in all black from head to toe, save for his bright blue team jacket, and someone else approaching him from the stands. 

  


The boy with Jihoon is cute. 

  


That’s the first thing Wonwoo thinks when the gymnasts get close enough for him to discern his features without his glasses. He’s taller than Jihoon, which isn’t uncommon, but even sitting down he can tell that he’s still a few centimeters shorter than Wonwoo. The sun hits the blond hair curled towards the round apples of his cheeks, down to where it lays just reaching his shoulders, making it seem almost silver. He’s wearing the same team jacket as Jihoon is, so Wonwoo makes the assumption that he’s also a gymnast.

  


“Oh yeah...Wonwoo-yah, this is Kwon Soonyoung, my roommate this year, unfortunately,” Jihoon introduces the blond as if he’d forgotten he was there, tone half bored, “His class got cancelled and I couldn’t sneak out fast enough so he tagged along. I’m still mad about it so you don’t have to be nice to him.”

  


“Jihoonie that’s so mean!,” the blond complains, shoving at Jihoon’s arm with enough strength that the short gymnast stumbles a bit, “There’s no way Wonwoo-ssi is gonna wanna be my friend if you tell him I’m weird instead of cool!”

  


“Good,” Jihoon opts for a punch rather than a shove, landing the blow square on the meat of Soonyoung’s bicep. He does it with enough force that Wonwoo can hear the dull thud of the impact even through the fabric of his jacket. Wonwoo winces the same time that Soonyoung yells, loud enough that some of the runners passing from the competing school pause in their step. Sweat drips into his eye as he watches Soonyoung and Jihoon start to argue, playfully on Soonyoung’s part and less so on Jihoon’s, and tries to quickly use the collar of his jersey to wipe some of the sweat off while they’re distracted. Soonyoung, unfortunately, catches the movement. 

  


“Ah, wait!” Soonyoung pulls the bag around his shoulder to the front and starts rummaging around in it until he finds what he’s looking for, exclaiming when he finally does, “Here use this!”

  


Wonwoo takes the towel offered to him, thanking Soonyoung quietly, a little embarrassed at what kind of impression he’s making while sitting silently drenched in sweat. It’s bright orange with black embroidered stripes on each of the corners, mimicking a tiger’s fur. He uses it to mop the sweat from his face and fringe, despite how cute he finds it. The dark, damp curls hang nearly in his eyes with how much sweat is soaked in them, and Wonwoo reminds himself that he needs to get a trim as soon as he can. 

  


“I sweat a lot, like, all the time so I always have towels with me!”

  


Wonwoo’s hand pauses with the towel still pressed to his forehead. Stiffly he moves the towel away from his face to look at Soonyoung. The look on Jihoon’s face must mirror his own, a mix of low level disgust and slowly increasing confusion as the statement sits without the other gymnast elaborating any further. 

  


“Soonyoung-ah...does that towel...have your sweat on it?” Jihoon speaks slowly, as if trying to make sure that the blond fully understands the meaning of each word he says before moving on to the next one.

  


“Probably not!” Soonyoung seems to understand in that moment exactly what Jihoon is asking, “Oh, wait, shit!”

_____

  


Wonwoo tries his best not to think about Soonyoung, for no other reason than he feels like a distraction he can’t really afford to have when he’s finally, seriously set his sights on Taereung and has a chance of making it there. 

  


Still, it’s hard to ignore someone who made such a strong first impression, especially when that same person had been attempting to make up for that first meeting by working themselves into your very limited friend group as a means of apology. 

  


Which is of course what Soonyoung was doing by tagging along to Wonwoo’s races with Jihoon. He’s even nice enough to invite Wonwoo to watch them compete, despite Jihoon always declining the offer for Wonwoo. Their two person trips to the arcade and dinner at their go to snack bar on their off days was increased by one, and for as much as Jihoon pretended to hate it and complain, Soonyoung fit in well. Enough so that when he wasn’t there his absence was noticeable. Or at least it was to Wonwoo.

  


Wonwoo tries not to bring the other up too much when it’s just him and Jihoon hanging out, partially because he knows it makes Jihoon feel bad about not being enough to keep his friend’s attention, even if he won’t consciously admit it, and partially because he doesn’t want to admit to himself that how much he’s been enjoying Soonyoung’s company. 

  


So when Japchae Night comes up and Soonyoung is noticeably not clinging to Jihoon when the gymnast arrives at the campus subway station to meet up with Wonwoo, he doesn’t ask anything more than where the other is. He accepts Jihoon’s answer of “team dinner” and jumps into a debate whether or not the ahjussi at the pc bang is still mad at them about spilling ramyeon on one of the keyboards the last time the three of them were there or if that was a one time thing. 

  


He makes it most of the way through dinner, talking about how training for qualifiers has been going for both of them to Jihoon’s latest attempt to get any of the boys on the weightlifting team to notice him to engaging in an intense game of rock, paper, scissors to try and determine who was paying, until he caves. 

  


“So, why aren’t you at dinner with the rest of the team?” Wonwoo asks around a mouthful of japchae, hoping the noodles will distract from the fact that that was a leading question. Jihoon finishes his own mouthful and then a bite of radish before responding. 

  


“It’s mainly for first years, I don’t have to be there,” Jihoon’s answer is short and simple, leaving not much room for Wonwoo to get much more info out of him, or to easily bring up Soonyoung without Jihoon getting suspicious. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to know more about his best friend’s roommate. His really cute, weird roommate. The one Wonwoo can’t stop thinking about. Nothing wrong with that at all.

  


Wonwoo gets his chance when he hears the clanking of dishes coming from behind him. From his peripheral, Mingyu, one of the servers or kitchen staff - Wonwoo is never sure since he’s almost always ignored when Mingyu waits on them - stops at the side of their table with a plate of mandu and two more servings of rice. Jihoon looks across to Wonwoo, confused, and then looks up at Mingyu. 

  


“Oh, we didn’t-“

  


“I know, they’re on the house,” Mingyu cuts Jihoon off, placing the plate between them and both bowls of rice closest to Jihoon, “You liked them last time so I just thought I’d bring you some.”

  


Mingyu must have smiled or done something with his face because Wonwoo can see the tips of Jihoon’s ears and the bridge of his nose start to turn pink. “Oh...okay thank you.”

  


They look at each other in silence, as if Wonwoo wasn’t sitting less than a meter away from them watching his best friend grow redder and redder in the face, before Mingyu nods and turns to walk away. He finally seems to notice that Wonwoo is there and gives him a short nod in greeting as he makes his way back to the kitchen. 

  


Wonwoo follows him with his eyes, until his tall figure disappears over his shoulder, and when he looks back at Jihoon, the gymnast is doing the same, except with much more lovesick conviction. His cheek is resting on his hand like he’s the lead in a drama and not an olympic athlete in training. The runner can swear he hears the other sigh while he stares off.

  


Regardless, Wonwoo uses the distraction to his advantage. “What about Soonyoung-ssi?”

  


“Hmmm...oh Soonyoung-ah only goes to make sure that the kids eat,” Jihoon answer automatically, his focus still somewhere behind Wonwoo’s head and probably on Mingyu, “Jihyun-sunbaenim is pretty strict about the ‘No Secret Dieting’ rule and Soonyoung-ah keeps volunteering to play Good Cop for her so she doesn’t go overboard and scare the new kids off.” The gymnast sighs again, picking up his chopsticks to eat one of the dumplings sitting between them, sighing again after finishing it. 

  


Wonwoo almost grimaces at how nice that is. He’s really been trying this entire time to do what Jihoon had asked of him and ignore his desire to get closer to the other gymnast, but it was so hard when he was this good on top of being so cute. He decides maybe it’s better to just give up and let whatever happens happen.

  


“I was thinking about coming to your next home competition. Soonyoung-ah invited me so-”

  


Jihoon drops his chopsticks, the metal hitting the table hard enough that the sound of them landing resonates through the entire room.

  


“Wonwoo-yah,” Jihoon’s face and tone are blank in an effort to convey how serious his next words will be, lovesickness immediately cleared up, “I’m begging you not to crush on Soonyoung-ah. He’s already barely tolerable as is, having a love life is only going to make him worse.”

  


“I won’t and I’m not,” Wonwoo responds, the words somehow feeling only half true in his mouth as he says them, “I just want to be friends that’s all.”

  


Jihoon hums, like he doesn’t trust Wonwoo’s words as much as Wonwoo himself, and gives Wonwoo a once over, “That’s a slippery slope, Jeon Wonwoo.” 

  


Wonwoo doesn’t like the knowing tone to Jihoon’s voice but he’s chosen to make his bed. Now he’s got to lay in it.

_____

  


The next men’s gymnastics competition is two weeks after Japchae Night. 

  


Wonwoo would be lying if he said he hadn’t tried to talk himself out of going more than once between that night and the day of the event, but he ultimately settles on going. It feels like he’s made a promise, whether it was to Soonyoung or himself he isn’t sure and it doesn’t actually matter. Wonwoo isn’t one to make promises he can’t keep. Even if fulfilling this promise makes him feel like he’s going to throw up. 

  


The gymnasium is already abuzz with activity when Wonwoo enters, the stands almost halfway filled with spectators. The parallel bar event is already underway and the announcement for the beginning of the floor event comes on as he’s looking for an empty seat. Jihoon had told him that since the competition was the first big one of the season that his and Soonyoung’s events weren’t until the middle of the day, so he didn’t have to show up at the beginning of the competition if he didn’t want to. He thinks that maybe Jihoon was trying to give him another out, a last minute offer to pretend he was actually too busy to attend. One that Wonwoo had to force himself into not being a coward and ignore. 

  


He spots their university’s team from across the room, the gymnasts all dressed in bright blue and crowded in a semicircle around their coach. They all tower over her to some degree but Kang Jihyun demands the attention of her team the same way she’d commanded the mat when she used to compete. Wonwoo imagines that this must be what the track team looks like in huddles with Coach Choi. 

  


He spots Soonyoung first, seeing as he’s the only gymnast in the huddle not wearing his tracksuit. He’s instead wearing the team’s striped, sleeveless leotard and shorts, both in their university’s colours, blue and white. His hair’s half pulled up into a ponytail on the top of head, slicked back into a tiny bun. His arms look great. His legs do too, from the look Wonwoo gets of them when the huddle breaks and Soonyoung turns to line up with the other athletes competing in the floor event. 

  


Jihoon catches him looking Soonyoung over, and sends him a pointed look before taking his place on the bench with the rest of the team to watch. Wonwoo does the same in the stands, taking a seat a few rows behind the judge’s table.

  


Soonyoung is the first up. His face is the most serious Wonwoo has ever seen, eyes sharp and jaw set as he chalks his palms and the soles of his feet. They announce his name one final time, he salutes the judges and then starts. 

  


Even with the decent number of competitions he’s sat in on since befriending Jihoon, Wonwoo still gets lost trying to understand what’s going on. The scoring for the different events is hard to follow, and he doesn’t have a grasp still on what moves are harder than others or what, other than falling, makes the judges less likely to award points. A lot of the intricacies of gymnastics flies over Wonwoo’s head but watching Soonyoung perform makes some of it make sense.

  


There’s a power behind his movements, something so precise and calculated in the way he throws his body into flips and somersaults across the mat. Wonwoo can see the strength in the gymnast’s arms as he holds himself into a handstand, strength mirrored in the strain of his legs as he stretches them out into a sort of upside down split, toe pointed. He faces the judges as he makes his final pass and Wonwoo can see the look in his eyes. 

  


Soonyoung’s eyes always had a brightness to them but there was something so different to them when he was competing. It was like comparing a bulb to a flame. They both gave off light but there was something so much more to the latter, an intensity that you couldn’t look away from. 

  


That’s how it felt to watch Soonyoung when he competes. Totally compelling and all encompassing. 

  


He finishes his routine with a series of flips, landing solidly to uproarious applause from the crowd. Soonyoung starts to celebrate before he catches himself and does a final salute and then leaves the mat. He greets the other competitors politely as he passes them on the way to wait for his final scores with his coach. They come in a few moments later to more cheering from the crowd and team, a hard to beat 16.54 especially with Soonyoung’s routine having the highest starting difficulty of the day. 

  


Wonwoo waits until Soonyoung is finished being congratulated by the other gymnasts and his coach before leaving the stands and approaching the sidelines. He meets eyes with Coach Kang before Soonyoung notices him, and she smiles and nods at him. Soonyoung undoes his hair and starts running a towel through it when he looks up and sees Wonwoo. 

  


“Wonwoo-yah!” Soonyoung shouts when he finally spots the runner, “You came!” He runs up to him, towel thrown around the blond’s neck to catch any stray drops of sweat he had missed. When he’s close enough, Soonyoung grabs both of Wonwoo’s hands and holds them in his own. The action gets chalk on the hem of Wonwoo’s track jacket, but he finds that he doesn’t really mind.

  


“Of course, I did. You asked me to, right?”

  


“Thank you, Wonwoo-yah,” Soonyoung smiles at him, his eyes becoming crescents and his lips stretching just wide enough that his teeth peek through. “Come on, let's go bother Jihoonie before his event starts. He always competes best when he’s annoyed.” 

  


Soonyoung pulls him forwards by the hand, fingers slotting between his, and Wonwoo follows willingly.

_____

  


There is a shift after Wonwoo watches Soonyoung compete for the first time. It’s not by much, not enough to completely throw Wonwoo’s world out of orbit, but enough that he does notice something being slightly off. 

  


Jihoon is the same, just as grumpy as always, if not a bit more stressed out by outdoing one of his personal bests so early in the season. Wonwoo can relate to that kind of pressure, even though he’s been experiencing the opposite lately. In his last few meets, he’s only been matching his best times for all of his events, even coming in a second slower than his best time in the 1500m at his last competition. It’s not bad enough to put him out of consideration for a spot at Taereung, but it still bothers him. He blames the lack of improvement on the weird shift.

  


Soonyoung is the same as before, just as boisterous and friendly as he’s always been, if not more so. Wonwoo thinks he may have unlocked some new level to their friendship because suddenly Soonyoung is clinging to him as much as he does to Jihoon. The feeling of having the blond constantly leaning into him or reaching for his hands makes Wonwoo’s stomach churn in a weird way. 

  


That’s another part of it: his reactions to Soonyoung have changed. The fondness he’s always felt looking at Soonyoung’s weird behaviour has become more intense, to the point that it felt like he had something caught in his throat any time he looked at the other. 

  


No matter how much he tried to figure it out, Wonwoo just couldn’t quite put his finger on just what had changed. 

  


Not until it hits him nearly a month later.

  


He’s waiting alone with Soonyoung for Jihoon to finish his last class at the entrance to the campus subway station. It’s not one of their usual off days, but both of the gymnastic and track seasons have been going well enough that both of their coaches had given everyone scheduled to train the night off. That’s what leaves Wonwoo and Soonyoung alone, snacking on bungeoppang in an effort to pass the time. 

  


About half an hour in, Soonyoung starts rambling at length about his plan to finally apologise to the PC bang ahjussi about the ramyeon incident since he’s tired of avoiding him and had finally figured out how to look up how much a keyboard costs and has enough saved up he can pay him for the damages. Wonwoo is only half listening. 

  


Instead, he finds himself noticing the way the lights of the station play off the curves of Soonyoung’s face. They’re sharp in contrast to the gentle curve of his cheeks and highlighting the point of his chin. It makes his eye sparkle, almost like the stars doting the sky. There’s red bean paste on the corner of his lip that he keeps missing every time he licks them between bites of bread. 

  


From this close up, Wonwoo can’t help but feel enchanted by the gymnast. That’s the moment it hits him.

  


It’s a weird feeling, to realise you may be falling in love at a subway station in the middle of the night. Weirder still to realise that that’s the name for what you’ve been feeling for the better part of a month.

  


Wonwoo would compare the feeling to the moment right before the start of a race. The held breath right before a heat, heavy in his chest with anticipation. He stands centimeters away from the finish line, podium in sight. He just needs to close the gap.

  


Soonyoung turns to him, catching Wonwoo staring at him, and the runner thinks that this is his chance. That all he needs to do is capitalise on the shock of this sudden revelation and just do something. Unfortunately the only thing his body can think to do is offer the barely touched bungeoppang in his hand to the other. Soonyoung pauses, and leans in, taking a bite from it like sharing an indirect kiss is something normal between them. The realisation of what they’re doing hits Wonwoo, and he must make a face because Soonyoung starts laughing when he looks up at him again. 

  


“I’m really glad we’re friends, Wonwoo,” Soonyoung says through his laughter, smiling up at him. 

  


“Me too,” Wonwoo says in response, returning the smile. 

______

  


Wonwoo deals with his feelings for Soonyoung in the same way he deals with everything else in his life that isn’t directly related to running or training for Taereung. He acknowledges their existence, lets then simmer in the corner of his mind, and then does nothing about them. 

  


He tries to keep things between him and Soonyoung like they’ve always been. He wakes up, goes to practice and then to class. Sometimes he has lunch with Jihoon and Soonyoung, sometimes it’s just with one or the other. He spends his free time with the two of them as much as he had before the sudden revelation in an effort to play it cool, despite the way he now finds the Soonyoung’s casual skinship like shocks to his nerves. Soonyoung is just as cute as Wonwoo always finds him to be, and he’s thankful for that constant at least. It gives him a point to rebalance his life on, and his times start improving again as a result.

  


He keeps them to their routines as best as they always have, including movie nights in Wonwoo’s dorm every Friday night they have free. Well, he tries to at the very least. With qualifiers for Still Rings coming up, Jihoon has been opting out lately in favour of doing some extra weight training, though, from the way Wonwoo has seen Jihoon eyeing their interactions, the runner can’t be sure that this isn’t just him meddling. 

  


Regardless of the reasoning behind Jihoon’s absence, nothing much changes about how the night goes with just Soonyoung and Wonwoo, Wonwoo still attempts to have them watch something that isn’t in English and isn’t a romantic comedy despite the gymnast’s pouting, and Soonyoung still pretends he can handle the spice of the tteokbokki they order even though two bites in his face is completely flushed red. Like always, they make it less than halfway through the movie before they’re both asleep.

  


When Wonwoo wakes up, hours later, he’s met with the glow of the monitor on his dresser as it plays the loading screen of the movie he and Soonyoung had apparently fallen asleep to. There’s a weight on his chest and a leg thrown over his, and he double checks to make sure that it is, in fact, Soonyoung clinging to him like a sweaty squid. If he squints he could make out the exact timestamp of when sleep had gotten the better of them, but that would involve more focus than his groggy mind would allow him. Instead, Wonwoo stretches his leg out and kicks the lid of his laptop closed. The screen freezes for a moment before plunging the room into blue-hued, half-darkness. 

  


He feels around for his phone, trying his best not to disturb the gymnast in his arms. The blond squirms and groans just as his fingertips a land on the charging cable, but thankfully he settles. He pulls on the cable until his fingertips catch on the edge of his phone case. He picks up the devices and sees that 12:47am is displayed at the top of the screen. 

  


“Shit...,” Wonwoo’s voice is rough to his own ears, “Soonyoung-ah, wake up. It's past curfew.”

  


Soonyoung whines, a low, annoyed sound in the back of his throat. He tries to bury his face deeper into Wonwoo’s chest, hand tightening at the hem of the runner’s shirt as Soonyoung stretches and settles again on the runner’s chest. The way the low light from the TV backlights the other makes the curve of his cheeks stand out, and Wonwoo has to close his fist tighter around his phone to keep himself from pinching them. 

  


“It's fine. I told Jihoonie to cover for me.” 

  


The blond’s words are slurred from sleep and muffed against his chest. There’s no way in this state that Soonyoung is aware of the way the statement comes across, no way he’s aware of the implications of it, but Wonwoo can still feel the tips of his ears heat in response. 

  


“Were you planning on staying over and not telling me?”   
  
“No,” Soonyoung blinks up at Wonwoo from where his cheek is pressed against the runner’s chest, his lips tilted in a sly half-smile, “I just know you’re too old to stay awake for a movie.”

  


“Yah, you brat!”, Wonwoo exclaims, turning to pinch at Soonyoung’s cheeks and sides and the other cackles. They roll around together, the runner poking at Soonyoung until his laughter gets too loud and Wonwoo remembers that it’s well past curfew, and he doesn’t want either of them to get in trouble. When they finally calm down, Wonwoo realises how close his face is to the other’s, somehow having ended up above Soonyoung, his forearms holding him up at either side of the blond’s head with the gymnast’s legs bracketing his hips. 

  


Soonyoung looks up at him wide eyed, hair a golden halo around his head, mused from their bout of roughhousing. Even in the small amount of light coming from the screen across the room, Wonwoo can tell the way that the apples of the blond’s cheeks and the button of his nose are tinged red. The sight of Soonyoung like this, as simple or as innocuous as the situation might seem to anyone else, made Wonwoo feel once again overwhelmed by the depth of his affection for the other.

  


“Oh…”, Soonyoung says with a sigh, like he’s realising something he hadn’t noticed before while staring back at Wonwoo. He can’t imagine what Soonyoung sees in his eyes in the almost darkness of his messy dorm in the middle of the night. The runner is almost afraid to find out what it is, or more so he’s scared of how Soonyoung would react to it. 

  


It’s fear unfounded it turns out as Soonyoung sits up just enough to press his lips to Wonwoo’s. 

  


Soonyoung’s lips are soft where they’re pressed against Wonwoo’s. There’s a hesitance in the way they move, a shyness that Wonwoo isn’t sure comes from him or from Soonyoung. He can’t help but think about all the times he’d seen the gymnast’s coach apply chapstick to the blond’s lips before he took to the mat. There’s a thrill to finally tasting the sweet strawberry flavour of it.

  


The kiss breaks for just a moment, before one of them, neither can be sure who, surges forward again into a second. Then a third, and a fourth, until the two of them are pressed so closely together that Wonwoo can feel the rapid beat of Soonyoung’s heart against his chest. Soonyoung makes these little, high pitched mewing sounds when Wonwoo licks at the seam of his lips to deepen the kiss. At some point Soonyoung reaches up to wrap his arms around Wonwoo’s neck, finger’s tangling in the curls at the nape of the runner’s neck and pulling. The feeling of it makes Wonwoo groan in the back of his throat and press his hips hard against Soonyoung’s. 

  


“Wait- Stop,” Soonyoung pulls back from the kiss and puts his hands against Wonwoo’s shoulders to push him away. 

  


Wonwoo rolls off of him and puts some distance between them. They lay side by side in the dark of Wonwoo’s room, trying to catch their breath and calm themselves down. Wonwoo can’t believe he’d let himself get so carried away after keeping himself under control for so long. 

  


“Sorry, I shouldn’t have-“ Wonwoo starts before Soonyoung cuts him off. 

  


“No!” Soonyoung exclaims, rolling to lay on his side to face Wonwoo, “No, you’re fine. It’s fine. I’ve just never…” Soonyoung cuts himself off this time, voice trailing off. The blush on his face grows brighter, reaching down to the sides of his neck. “But I liked it and…I like you, Wonwoo”

  


Wonwoo reaches his hand out between the gap between them, hesitating a moment before he reaches the other’s hand in case he wants to pull away and closes his hand around Soonyoung’s when he doesn’t. “I like you, too, Soonyoung,” Wonwoo’s voice is low when he says it, almost like he’s afraid admitting it even now would somehow break the spell.

  


Soonyoung shifts his hands so that their fingers slot together, and moves to kiss Wonwoo again. The kiss is chaste, just a brief peck of lips before they separate. They both smile, like they’re sharing a secret. 

  
  



End file.
